Cancer Comes from Disturbed Growth and Differentiation Control

Abstract

Of all afflictions, cancer is perhaps the most relevant to the study of developmental biology because it represents alterations in otherwise normal processes of growth. Growth is defined as an increase in mass. Growth can result from more than one process. For example, enlargement of individual cells is a cause of growth. Muscle fibers grow by expanding in length and diameter. Also, the deposition of extracellular matrix material contributes to the enlargment of the growing juvenile. However, most increase in mass is based on cell division followed by the enlargement of the daughter cells to the size characteristic of the cell type. However, an increase in mass can also result from the activity of certain “oncogenes” (from the Greek: oncos = mass and genein = to generate), and such an increase can be dangerous because it can result in the formation of a tumor.